Page 63 of The Arrangement

Georgia

Everything was okay. I was fine. Then why was my heart racing like rabid wolves were chasing me as we all piled into the elevator? Something seemed off with Quinn. His eyes kept resting on me when he thought I wasn't looking.

"Here's your room key!" Sarah exclaimed, handing me the keycard with my name printed on the back. "Don't forget brunch at noon!"

My friend stopped halfway down the hall, dropping Fletcher's hand to come and wrap her arms around me in a tight hug. "This has been the best birthday ever! Thank you," she whispered tenderly.

I squeezed her back and whispered, "Happy birthday, Sarah. You deserve it."

She took off down the hall of perfectly lined doors, whispering all the while to her tall boyfriend.

"I think our room is here." Spinning, I found Quinn a few feet down, his hand on the door handle of a room with numbers that corresponded to those on the keycards.

The door opened, and both of us just stared at the empty room, dimly lit by the bedside lamp they had left on.

"Ladies first," Quinn said, waving me in as he held the door for me.Deep breath, Georgia; it's not like we haven't done much more intimate things than sleeping in the same room.

Or have we? Sure, we've been sleeping together, butsleepingtogether is a whole other thing. As soon as we walked in, a very obvious issue came to light as I set down my overnight bag.

"Where's the couch?" Quinn moaned, his backpack dropping down to the floor. "Really, a cuck chair was all they could muster up?"

I forced myself to smirk before looking at him. "Well, that's one thing we haven't tried for the channel."

Quinn tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes at me. "Oh my god, Clark, don't start." But there was a smirk tugging at his lips regardless.

With a deep sigh, he ran his hands through his tousled curls and looked at the bed, exhaustion plain on his features. "Okay, what side of the bed do you want?"

I shrugged, choosing the right side at random, toeing off my heels from my aching feet as I did so. Quinn pulled some sweatpants out of the bag and motioned to the bathroom. "I'm going to jump in the shower real quick, unless you want in first?"

I shook my head, rubbing the heels of my feet. "Go for it." And despite myself, I couldn't help but think about Quinn naked, in the shower, while I was just behind a thin hotel door. Warmth spread over my body despite the chill in the previously unoccupied room; I immediately turned up the heat a bit as I took out my own sleepwear and skincare products.

Busying myself by taking down my hair from the complicated braid Sarah had helped me achieve, I brushed my fingers through it, trying to untangle the knots before I went to bed. Looking at my phone, I realized it was well past three a.m., and every bone in my body was exhausted.

My train of thought halted as soon as I heard the water turn on; it was as if I had become hyper-aware of every sound coming from that bathroom. The vibration of my phone nearly stopped my racing heart as Sarah's name appeared on my screen.

Sarah: I wanted to make sure you were okay with the room situation. Because you know I would even give up an uninterrupted night with this sex god to make sure you were okay, right?

I laugh-reacted to her text, shaking my head at the fact she took time from said sex god to even text me.

Me: Of course I am; I'll see you for brunch. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!

Of course, after the last couple of months, what wouldn't I do? I tried everything not to think about the man in the bathroom right now; the man who had just yesterday given me the most earth-shattering orgasm and was now about to sleep in the same bed as me because there was no way either of us would be able to curl up that dubiously placed chair in the corner.

The water turned off, shaking me from my thoughts as I pulled my pajamas to my chest. My skin still held the feeling of a closely pressed body and sweat from the nightclub, and I was more than looking forward to cleaning myself off. I felt like only seconds before Quinn was exiting the steam filled room, skin slightly ruddy from the heat and scrubbing his dark curls with a towel as he walked out.

"All yours." He waved to the bathroom without actually looking at me, instead focusing on stuffing his dirty clothing into a plastic bag. I all but rushed into the bathroom, piling my hair up on my head, not having the energy to wash and dry my hair at this point. Feeling like I was in a race against the time I had scrubbed off in his apartment shower, I was in and out in minutes before wiping off the makeup Sarah had so graciously helped me apply when I got too overwhelmed.

Digging through my backpack of night clothes, I immediately cursed myself when I saw a pair of cloth shorts that barely covered the back of my ass and an oversized t-shirt with a hole near the collar that Hannah had made during one of her vigorous biscuit-making sessions. So there I left the warm interior of the bathroom, backpack stillclutched to my chest like some kind of security blanket to see Quinn's ridiculously huge body occupying one side of the bed.

And he was wearing glasses?

"Since when do you wear glasses?" I asked, sounding more than a bit condescending than I wanted to, to my surprise.

Quinn looked up with a confused expression. "Um, since a year ago?"

Placing the backpack down, I stared at him, crossing my arms. "Why have I never seen you wear them?"

"Because I wear them at night? To read?" he answered, holding up a reading device as if to pass my inspection. I was angry,not because I didn't know he wore glasses but because he looked very good in said glasses. They were wire-rimmed and slightly rounded, the kind of frames that only certain people could really pull off, and of course, he could. Before I could say anything else, he pulled back the blankets on the opposite side of the bed and looked at me expectantly.

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